Medic!: How I Fought World War II with Morphine, Sulfa, and Iodine Swabs [Hardcover]

Robert "Doc Joe" Franklin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2006

Lt. Gen. George S. Patton remarked that the “45th Infantry Division is one of the best, if not the best division that the American army has ever produced.” Such praise came at a steep price, for the 45th saw some of the fiercest fighting in the European campaign—from Sicily to Anzio and from southern France into Germany—and racked up one of the highest casualty rates. Through it all, medic Robert “Doc Joe” Franklin—drafted in 1942 and thrust into combat with no specific training or knowledge for treating war wounds—soldiered on, fighting as hard to keep his men alive as the enemy fought to kill them. His medical story, one of the first of World War II, is told here with simplicity, unflinching honesty, and grit.

Studded with memorable vignettes—of a friend who “smells” the Germans long before they appear, the dog that acts as an artillery spotter, the lieutenant who can’t see beyond a few hundred feet—Franklin’s memoir documents the almost unbearable drama of ground gained and lives lost as well as the terrible human toll of battle on himself, his comrades, and civilians quite literally caught in the crossfire. A rare look at the fight for lives laid on the line, Medic! brings to life as never before the reality of war.

(20060220)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Despite occasionally awkward writing, this account of Franklin's experiences during WWII brings combat to life. With woefully little training, Franklin was assigned as a medic to the 45th Infantry in June 1943 and spent the next two years assisting wounded soldiers in various military campaigns from Sicily to southern France, learning on the job how to treat wounds. His descriptions of horrific casualties and deaths of both Americans and Germans are vivid, and so are the more human moments, such as when, with bullets flying around him in Italy, he treated a wounded German and found himself trading family pictures with the enemy. Franklin set up a farmhouse aid station in France and provides a harrowing narrative of a severely wounded young French couple and their mutilated baby. At this station, too, he watched a friend, "brought in with his brains hanging out," die just months before the war ended. He also tells of confronting racism and anti-Semitism expressed by some U.S. soldiers. The author, now 88, writes that not a night goes by without his thinking of those who died: "The tragedy of war for those who have fought it... is that it never ends." 32 b&w photos, map.(May)
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Review

"[T]his account of Franklin''s experiences during WWII brings combat to life. . . . His descriptions of horrific casualties and deaths of both Americans and Germans are vivid, and so are the more human moments."—Publishers Weekly

(Publishers Weekly 20061027)

"For anyone who has ever wondered what combat was really like, this astonishing little book is about as close as one can come without getting the mud and blood all over them. . . . This book is a searing, devastating look at combat, heroism, and stupidity. It pulls no punches. . . . It will undoubtedly rank with the classics of military literature as one of the finest, most heart-breaking, most brutally honest books ever written about men in war. . . . An absolute ''must-read.''"—WWII History

(WWII History 20060626)

“[Franklin’s] vignettes will help the reader understand what being in war is all about—the laughs, the pain, the sorrow, and most important, the pride of having served.”—Military Heritage

(Military Heritage 20061113)

"The spare and terse prose is vividly evocative . . . I have never read a better description of the mission and the work of a platoon medic in combat."—Robert J. T. Joy, Journal of Military History

(Robert J. T. Joy Journal of Military History )

"This brief memoir is a powerful dose of upfront combat."—Army Magazine

(Kevin M. Hymel Army Magazine )

"Seeing the war through the eyes of a medic, feeling the frustrations, the fear, the helplessness, and the triumphs first-hand, the reader understands what it means to fight to save the lives of soldiers. . . . A valuable addition to any biographical or historical collection."—Sara Marcus, Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter

(Sara Marcus AJL Newsletter )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 156 pages
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press; 1 edition (May 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803220146
• ISBN-13: 978-0803220140
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,650,525 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Concise, Clear and Effective Personal Memoir, September 9, 2007

By 

John P. Rooney "John" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Medic!: How I Fought World War II with Morphine, Sulfa, and Iodine Swabs (Hardcover)

"Medic!", by Robert "Doc Joe" Franklin. Subtitled: "How I Fought World War II With Morphine, Sulfa And Iodine Swabs". University of Nebraska Press, 2006.

When Robert Franklin was officially drafted into the United States Army, he had already given up his room and quit his job at the Associated Press. He was afraid that he would flunk the Army medical and then have no place to go. At the age of twenty-five, he entered the Army in Los Angeles and was assigned to the medical unit of the 28th Infantry Division, where he received virtually no training in being a medic. On page 4, Franklin states that he learned his "...job as a medic through on-the-job training". The remainder of the book is just as blunt, concise and clear. For example, on page 33, the author relates that a

"... friendly Sicilian had warned them that a small bridge was mined, but the lead officer scoffed and led his men across. It was mined."

This kind of understatement flows throughout the book. Another example: on page 129, Franklin was being awarded the Silver Star by General Alexander M. Patch. General Patch stood on a wooden platform while Medic Franklin stood in the mud. This was all captured in a photo published in an LA newspaper in 1944.

His writing continues in this understated pace, from Sicily to Anzio to Salerno, and, each time he helps a wounded solider down from the front, the author records that departure with the words, "...and I never saw him again". (See, for example, page 124.) There were far too many descriptions of wounded men that ended with the term, "...and I never saw him again".

There is a final two paged summary, where he describes his life after the war, his marriage to his beloved, Betty, and how she died on April 27, 2001 at 4:10 in the afternoon. He ends the book with the notice that his doctors gave him another year or two ...to which he replied, "That doesn't bother me. I've never been afraid to die, and at eighty-eight, I've lived long enough".

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Medic!: How I Fought World War II with Morphine, Sulfa, and Iodine Swabs, July 23, 2007

By 

Elwood P (Seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Medic!: How I Fought World War II with Morphine, Sulfa, and Iodine Swabs (Hardcover)

I enjoyed this book. However, I wished Mr. Franklin had been able to spend more time writing about his experiences after the Italian Campaign, though it is understandable since his wartime diary ended at that point.

Two other excellent books on this subject, but not written by former Medics are Ross Carter's "Those Devils in Baggy Pants" about his service the 82nd ABN and Farley Mowat's "And No Birds Sang" about his service in Canadian Army in Italy. Mr. Franklin's book is very close to the caliber of these two classic works, and I highly recommend it.

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best memoirs, December 17, 2011

By 

Nobody73 "D.R. Tharp" (Missouri) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Medic!: How I Fought World War II with Morphine, Sulfa, and Iodine Swabs (Hardcover)

This has to be the very best memoir of a WW2 medic that I have read. I actually read it twice and decided to review it this time. This story is told by a man that symbolizes to me the greatness of so many who served during this time. He really got the brunt of the war having started in Sicily and went non stop through the end of the war. A ton of GI's only experienced a few months of war after D-Day. Doc Joe was already a seasoned veteran by that time. There is no self heroics in the story, it just seemed that he needed to tell the story. I contacted a man who helped get the book published, Flint Whitlock and found out that Joe died soon after this was published.

His time in Anzio really shows the hell these guys went through and Joe never backed down, much to his own demise mentally and physically. I collect medical stuff and memoirs from ww2 as well as infantry memoirs and this is a great under discussed book. Thanks Doc Joe Franklin........D.R. Tharp Author of 'Task Force Intrepid' The Gold of Katanga